Fast Fall

I can't believe that I am sitting inside with freezing hands watching little pieces of ice spitting down from the sky. What happened to those glorious fall days? As the weather turns ugly, I have to keep reminding myself that it is not impossible to get out in this crappy November brown turdy season. I yearn for the first real snow fall- we did have a sloppy half inch or so this past Friday. The boys had the day off and delighted in the white view from their window. They quickly rummaged through the hall closet and found enough hats/mittens/boots to get out and use up every last flake to form about a half dozen snowballs. They then enticed me out and bombarded me. It was a great thrill, for 32 seconds. Then all was brown and mud again.

But we have gotten out- I started the last two Sundays with an energizing 'pole hike' out at Battle Creek park. Those are some hills. And this past weekend, as the sun started thinking about peeking out off a dreary Sunday sky, the family packed into the car to go to an undisclosed location for the fall launch of the rocket club. The original launch had to be 'scrubbed' (do you like the official language) because of gusts over 50 mph. As we waited in our car for the other members to show I found myself hoping that we would be stood up and could go back home to our luke-cold house. Then the cars rolled in and we bundled up and hiked across the field to the launch site. We spent a glorious 2 hours in the frigid sunshine racing down rockets as they dropped from the sky. I actually nabbed one out of the air before it his the ground this time. I only had to batter two boys out of the way to do so. As it approached 4pm and the sun had lost almost all of its weak power James prepared the final launch- he put in a big motor (is that what they are called?) and pointed the launch pad into the wind. As it took off it looked like it was going to disappear forever, then the chute came out and it drifted back so perfectly that all Theo had to do is reach up into the sky and grab it. I don't think he ever moved his feet. It was a perfect 'finishing move'- he was postively glowing with delight. We returned to the house chilled to the bone, our shoes covered in cold goose poop, but with light hearts and a firm committment to continue to get out, despite it being November in Minnesota.

Here's a shot from our wonderful October: